The Doctor nodded. 'How nearly?' he said.

'Twenty-eight minutes past,' she told him.

'Right,' said the Doctor. He got slowly to his feet, brushed himself down and then looked up at Captain Florence. 'You can't win,' he told her. 'Your pirates have had a glimpse of another life, and that'll never go away. Your clients are going to kill you if you go back to them. And you seem to have a dagger sticking out your front.'

'Can,' said Captain Florence. 'Can. Still. Kill. You.'

'Yes you can,' said the Doctor. 'But didn't I say? If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.'

'Doctor!' said Martha. She could see that the dying captain had nothing left to lose.

The Doctor turned to her and grinned. 'I always wanted to say that. Don't worry, Martha, it's all going to be fine. Really – all going to be fine.' He turned back to Captain Florence. 'I can help you, if you'll let me. Show you a better way of living. What do you say?'

Captain Florence stood, blood pouring from her wound, and it looked like she was considering. Then she shrugged.

'Nah,' she said, and shot him.

Martha screamed, running forward. Captain Florence fell backwards, her body limp. And the Doctor stood quite calmly as the pink light consumed him.

'All right, dear?' said a voice he recognised. The Doctor opened his eyes to see a cartoon sheep smiling back at him. It had been drawn on the side of a chipped mug of tea, which was being held in front of his face. He struggled to sit up and gladly took the tea.

Thank you,' he said. He found himself in the alleyway between the huge and noisy machines of the engine rooms. The TARDIS stood in the space where it had first materialised, and in front of it stood several of his friends. Mrs Wingsworth had handed him the tea. Behind her stood Archibald and Dashiel and several mouthless men. Archibald waved. The Doctor grinned back at him, at them all.

'Well,' he said. 'That's a relief. I wasn't sure that would really work!'

SIXTEEN

The badgers stood in silence, not sure what to do. Martha stared fixedly at the spot where the Doctor had died, the pink light having eaten him up entirely. She felt nothing, nothing at all. She was dimly aware of a hairy paw taking her hand, of Jocelyn saying something to her. She was dimly aware of hot tears scoring down her cheek. She was dimly aware that nothing mattered any more.

'Right,' said Stanley the badger pirate. 'I'm captain now.' None of the other badger pirates protested. He leered at them. 'An' that means you do what I say!' he roared. A few of the badgers nodded. 'Good,' said Stanley. 'Now, we're gonna shoot these two.'

Martha and Jocelyn were pushed forward into the open space where the Doctor and Captain Florence had fought. Stanley raised his gun at them, then lowered it again.

'Nah,' he said. 'I don't do the shooting. I just give the order. Isobel! You can shoot 'em.'

'Er,' said the badger pirate Isobel. 'Captain Florence took my gun.'

'Huh,' said Stanley. 'Right. Ruby Tulip. You can shoot 'em.'

A small badger woman with wide and lustrous eyes stepped forward. She raised her gun.

'Er,' she said. 'Which one first?'

Stanley scratched his hairy face with a paw. Then he ip-dipped between Martha and Jocelyn. And chose Martha to die first.

'I'm not scared of you,' she told him.

'Yeah,' he said, awkwardly.

'You just killed the one person who could have changed your lives,' she said.

'Yeah,' said Stanley. 'We kinda know that.' He nodded to Ruby Tulip. Martha braced herself, determined not to scream. And Ruby Tulip pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened. Ruby Tulip stared at her gun, shook it around a bit, and tried again. Nothing happened.

'Gotta do everythin' myself,' muttered Stanley, and he raised his gun at Martha. Nothing happened. 'Er,' he said.

He glanced round at the other badgers, and those with guns tried to shoot Martha. Nothing happened. Jocelyn ran to Martha and threw her arms around her, so hard it almost winded her.

'We're gonna be OK!' said Jocelyn.

'Er,' said Martha, utterly baffled. 'Yeah, I think we are.'

'Wha's goin' on?' snarled Stanley, thumping his gun against the floor and trying to get it to shoot.

'An' where's the captain's body?' asked Isobel beside him.

They all turned to look. Captain Florence had lain at their feet, the dagger protruding from her chest. And now there wasn't even any blood on the floor.

Martha felt something turning over in her stomach. A sudden rush of excitement. They were still stuck in the time loop! 'Look,' she told the badgers, pointing to the great bay window that looked out into the vacuum of space.

Space crackled with pink and blue energy. The pink and blue began to swirl like a whirlpool, getting ever brighter. The badgers shielded their eyes as it exploded white. And from the ball of white light, crackling with pink and pale blue lightning, emerged the Starship Brilliant.

Its solar sails glittered silver, the hull and the long fin hanging underneath it sparkling in the starlight. There were no red jelly blotches along it – there was no sign of any damage at all. It was pristine, perfect, good as new. And that could only mean one thing...

'Allo, allo, allo!' called a voice from all around them. 'This is the good ship Brilliant. Can someone say something back?'

'Doctor!' laughed Martha, recognising his voice. 'You're alive.'

'Oh yeah,' he said back to her. 'Never been better. Told you it'd all be fine. In fact, we're all fine over here. Having a bit of a party. Hope you weren't worried.'

'Course not,' she lied. 'Anyway, I thought you said you were going to get us out of the time loop.'

'Well, yeah,' he admitted. 'And then I had this better idea.'

'So you made the time loop bigger so that it included the pirate ship.'

'I suppose I did,' said the Doctor. 'Now, there's canapés for everyone over here. Think your badger friends might like to join us? See you in a bit!' And the line to the Brilliant went dead.

The badgers all round Martha began to murmur to each other. Stanley threw his gun to the ground at his feet, and there was sudden silence.

'I give the orders!' he yelled.

'Er,' said the badger woman, Zuzia. 'Can we go to the party?' She furrowed her hairy forehead as a thought came slowly to her. 'Please,' she added.

'No!' shouted Stanley. 'I'm in charge! I'm the captain!'

The badgers shuddered with fear of him. But Kitty Rose raised a paw nervously.

'What?' snapped Stanley.

'Er,' said Kitty Rose, with all the other badgers looking at her. 'What can you do to stop us jus' going?'

Stanley's jaw dropped open in amazement at the very idea. And in the moment that he didn't say anything, that he didn't shout her down or lunge at her, the other badgers knew the answer. They dropped their guns, they laughed and cheered, and hurried away to the lifts.

Martha, Jocelyn and Stanley stood alone together in front of the great bay window. Tiny capsules were already zipping away from the pirate ship and they watched them clustering round the Brilliant. A bay door opened in the side of the starship and the capsules queued up in an orderly fashion to be allowed aboard.

'You should come with us,' said Martha to Stanley, and put her hand on his shoulder. 'Join the party.'

'Huh,' said Stanley, shaking her hand away.

'She's right,' said a voice that Martha thought for a moment belonged to Jocelyn. They turned to see Captain Florence walking down from between the passageway of hanging silks. Her collarless blouse was torn and bloodstained, but otherwise she looked just fine.

'Captain,' said Stanley quietly, knowing his brief time as boss was now over.